Though more attention has since been paid to words, the spirit of the old saying remains—that the whites possess no rights in Hayti which the blacks are bound to respect.
In civil cases bribery of the judges is notorious, and the largest or the most liberal purse wins. Most persons carefully avoid a lawsuit, and prefer submitting to injustice.
The judges, curiously enough, are rarely selected from among the lawyers. The Government can appoint any one it pleases, and as these posts are awarded for political services, those selected consider that the appointments are given to enable them to make their fortunes as rapidly as possible. As the pay is small, their wives often make it an excuse to keep shops and carry on a retail trade; but the fact is that the Haïtienne is never so happy as when behind a counter.
The active bar of Port-au-Prince is composed of very inferior men. I often heard my friend Deslandes address the courts. He was at the summit of his profession, and to have him for your advocate was popularly supposed to secure the success of your cause. And yet I heard this eloquent and able advocate, as he was called, whilst defending an Englishman charged with having criminally slain an American negro, drop the legitimate argument of self-defence, and weary his audience for a couple of hours trying to prove that the Englishman was an instrument of Divine Providence to rid the world of a ruffian. Naturally the Englishman was condemned.
Whilst in court the lawyers surround themselves with heaps of books, and continually read long extracts from the laws of the country, or—what they greatly prefer—passages from the speeches of the most celebrated French advocates; whether they explain or not the subject in hand is immaterial. I have often heard my French colleagues say that they have tried in vain to discover what these extracts had to do with the case in point. Few of these lawyers bear a high character, and they are freely accused of collusion, and of other dishonest practices. Unhappy is the widow, the orphan, or the friendless that falls into their hands. Many of my Haytian friends have assured me that, though they had studied for the bar, they found it impossible to practise with any hope of preserving their self-respect. No doubt the bar of Hayti contains some honest men, but the majority have an evil reputation.
The laws of Hayti are not in fault, as they are as minutely elaborate as those of any other country, and the shelves of a library would groan beneath their weight. Had M. Linstant Pradine been able to continue the useful publication he commenced—a collection of the laws of Hayti—it was his design to have united in a regular series all the laws and decrees by which his country was supposed to be governed.
Though a few young men of good position have studied for the legal profession in France, yet the majority of the members of the bar are chosen among the lawyers, clerks, and others who have studied at home. A board is appointed to examine young aspirants. It consists of two judges and three lawyers; and if the young men pass, they each receive a certificate of qualification, countersigned by the Minister of Justice. After this simple process they can open an étude on their own account.
One of the greatest difficulties of the diplomatic and consular officers in all these American republics is to obtain prompt and legal justice for their countrymen. Although the juge d’instruction ought to finish his work at the utmost in two months, prisoners’ cases drag on, and as the law of bail is unknown, they may be, and have been, confined for years before being brought to trial.
The President of the republic names the justices of the peace and their deputies, the judges of the civil and criminal courts, the courts of appeal, and the members of the court of cassation. All but the first-named judges are irremovable according to the constitution; but revolutionary leaders are not apt to respect constitutions, and during President Domingue’s time his Ministers upset all the old legal settlements. The last constitution, that of 1879, permitted the President to remove judges for the space of one year, in order that the friends of the Administration should be appointed to carry out their destined work.
It would be perhaps useless to describe in detail the other legal arrangements in Hayti, as they are founded on French precedents.